The Ship of Life

What a fun and interesting day! God blesses abundantly more than I can ever imagine each day in His service. This morning I was greeted by bright smiling young faces already singing "Jesus loves the little children" as we climbed the two flights to our "classroom" on the veranda of the third floor overlooking the Mekong River. I had scheduled a face talk visit with Mother in her room at Edgemere before she climbed in bed for the evening. The children who arrived at class early sang two songs for her before we started class. We now have a repertoire of eleven songs and six solid Bible lessons.(I need a translator to get the Bible stories across in Kmer.) We have several games down in English as well such as Hokey Pokey. They are delightful most of the time, but can be a handful when 25+ aging 2-15 all have different levels of ability and none have any real English. And I definitely do not understand Kmer! They continue to arrive about 7:00 for the 8-9 class and stay till I push them out at 10:00. The afternoon group is often standing out the door watching us finish lunch. We send them home, but they return by 2:00 for the three o'clock class! Tonight they went home at 5:00 , but came back with new friends at 5:30! They sat at my feet and sang all eleven songs while Srey Nang finished my manicure! Then they went out front to watch the students play volleyball till the sun went down.****The CBI students' English class was fun today, too. We used the Bible trivia cards to test both English and Bible knowledge. They love healthy competition! ****Our midweek outing was to visit our new friends living on the Ship of Life who had worshipped with us our first Sunday in Cambodia. The ship is a medical clinic housing both a dentist and a physician. Currently 16 people live aboard ship including four Americans...three full time and one here for a month about to return home Saturday! The visit aboard SOL included lunch which was quite delicious and a tour of the facility Debbie and Paul and their dog Reggie have made the ship home for nine months now and do a wonderful job of managing the ship. The crew and medical staff are all Cambodian with volunteers joining them from time. Linda enjoyed her first visit so much, she went home and sold everything to return as long as the Lord allows her to be of service. The ship is well stocked with equipment and supplies. We saw a young girl having dental work done, an older lady having an eye exam and being fitted with glasses and several going through initial screening procedures waiting their turns. **** Almost as exciting as the tour/visit was our ferry ride across the Mekong! The dirt path leading down the steep embankment has been eaten away by the rains causing deep crevices. Watching Sokhom back down the unknown territory and onto the small ferry was an act of faith. However, staying in the car and backing onto the ferry on the return was even more of a faith building exercise! This time we were the second car onboard! Several motorcycles, bikes and pedestrians carried baskets, boxes and bags onboard all around us. I know there are people back home praying for safety!